The court emphasized that termination without notice violates principles of natural justice, rendering the order unsustainable.

JUDGMENT :

Battu Devanand, J.

This writ appeal is filed against the order passed by the learned single Judge of this Court on 14.12.2013 in W.P.No.3188 of 2005.

2. The parties in the Appeal will be referred to as they are arrayed in the Writ Petition for convenience.

3. Heard the learned Government Pleader for Higher Education appearing on behalf of the appellants and Sri A. Sreedhar, learned counsel appearing for the respondents and carefully perused the material available on record.

4. Submissions of the petitioners:

(i) The 1^st petitioner was appointed as Record Assistant vide proceedings, dated 18.12.1996 and the petitioners 2 and 3 were appointed as Attender and Night Watchman vide proceedings, dated 23.12.1996 in 4^th respondent college. As they were appointed in aided vacancies, the Government has to release the grant-in-aid for payment of their salaries. As the Government failed to release the salaries to the petitioners, they filed W.P.No.25486 of 1997 seeking a direction to the respondents to pay the salaries due to them from the date of their appointment and for regular payment of salaries with interest at 18% per annum on the amounts due to them.

(ii) The said writ petition was disposed of on 08.08.2003 directing the respondents to pay salaries to the petitioners as per rules. Aggrieved by the said order, the Government preferred an appeal in W.A.No.1051 of 2004 and a Division Bench of this Court in W.A.M.P.Nos.1890 and 3394 of 2004 passed in interim order on 25.11.2004 directing the petitioners therein to pay salaries to the respondents in the minimum time scale of pay in the respective posts with effect from January, 1999 taking into consideration the revision of pay scales, if any, effected from time to time and pay the arrears accrued up to October, 2004 within a period of two months from the date of the order. It is further directed to continue to pay salaries regularly as directed above from November, 2004 onwards.

(iii) Thereafter, the 1^st respondent vide impugned proceedings, dated 07.02.2005 terminated the petitioners’ services alleging that their appointments were irregular. Challenging the said proceedings, the petitioners approached this Court by filing writ petition.

5. Submissions of the Respondents:

(i) A counter-affidavit filed by the respondents. It is averred that the petitioners were appointed as Record Assistant, Attender and Night Watchman in 4^th respondent college by the then Principal without following due process of selection contrary to the rules which were in vogue. It is stated that 4^th respondent college was an aided private college which was under the control of 3^rd respondent since 01.09.1978. By virtue of the G.O.Ms.No.939, Education (IE) Department, dated 20.09.1978, 13 colleges functioning under the erstwhile Chintalapathi Bapiraju Dharma Samstha were taken over by the Government. On 09.04.1997, 3^rd respondent has physically taken over the college and the Government issued G.O.Ms.No.294, dated 24.09.1997 for payment of salaries to the staff working in 5 Junior Colleges including 4^th respondent college from the Government account.

(ii) It is further averred in the counter-affidavit that vide proceedings, dated 27.09.1996 and 15.09.1996 of 1^st respondent, 4^th respondent was permitted to fill up the vacant posts of Record Assistant and Night Watchman as per existing rules. The 4^th respondent appointed the petitioners without notifying to the employment exchange and without following the required recruitment rules. It is further contended that after approval of appointments by the Board of Intermediate Education, 1^st respon